


The Smoke of Hellfire Permeates Thy Room, and You Choke

by Sporksprocket



Category: Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (TV 2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Satan - Freeform, Satanic Ideas, harvey centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-16
Updated: 2019-04-16
Packaged: 2020-01-14 20:38:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18483925
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sporksprocket/pseuds/Sporksprocket
Summary: The day stuck in the mines changed Harvey.Red eyes bore into his soul, and he’s shivering and sweating all at once. His hands and feet feel as cold as ice but his head feels like it is on fire. All burn with shocking pain.But perhaps it isn’t change, perhaps it is an awakening.





	The Smoke of Hellfire Permeates Thy Room, and You Choke

When Harvey first hides in the mines, he is almost overwhelmed with excitement. Wait until they fine him! And he will have to wait- it’s going to take awhile for anyone to find him!

 

Whenever Tommy brought Harvey with him to hang out with his friends, he was always the weakest link. Tommy never seem bothered, but it didn’t sit well with Harvey. It felt like it confirmed all the things his father said when he drank too much.

 

So, when they decided to play hide-and-seek Harvey took off. And then, when his eyes, searching the forest desperately, stumbled upon the mines where his father worked, they widened. What a perfect spot!

 

Perhaps too perfect, he began to think as he continued waiting. But then again, he was never known for his patience. He had probably waited less time than he thought. He wanted to win, anyways. And what would it look like if he came running out right when he was just about to win? No, he will wait.

 

But then, it got later and later and later. He had hid a ways inside the mines, so he couldn’t be easily spotted by the seeker from the outside. He decided enough was enough, no matter what it looked like he is going to give up this round. There will always be another chance to prove himself.

 

So he gets up and begins to walk the way he came. Or maybe he took a wrong turn, because it’s taking longer than it should to reach the entrance. He must’ve taken a wrong turn. So he turns around and tries again. But that proves to be the wrong way as well so he tries again. His walk begins to quicken each time he realizes he has taken a wrong turn.

 

The sound of his feet stumbling along the gravel is no longer the only sound left in the tunnels. Long gone is the hum of the crickets, replaced by a howl that seems too alive to be the wind. He turns a corner and almost runs into a wall of fur. Red eyes bore into his soul, and he’s shivering and sweating all at once. His hands and feet feel as cold as ice but his head feels like it is on fire. All burn with shocking pain.

 

When Tommy shakes him to awareness, he doesn’t know how long it’s been since he had first seen the creature. He hears him mentioning later that he was gone for about four hours. He doesn’t know whether to be surprised that it took that long or that it was only that long. It felt both like an eternity and a heartbeat all at once. An agonizing breath and a devastating lifetime. His hands shake for days and he has nightmares now, but he cares less about silly things like pride and impressing the older boys and winning hide-and-seek and maybe that makes it worth it. His father approves, at least. His son’s no chickenshit anymore.

 

—

 

The few days after the mines are the worst. Harvey spends a lot of time in bed napping or staring at a wall when he can no longer sleep. Tommy first attempts to get him to cheer up and go outside, but when he realizes it is futile, he rubs Harvey’s back before leaving.

 

Harvey doesn’t know how long it is before Tommy comes back with breakfast from the kitchen and a few comic books from the bookshelf in their room. He begins to sit up and looks up to Tommy to thank him. It’s just that, when he looks up, it is not Tommy but the creature, complete with snarling mouth, protruding fangs, burning red eyes, matted fur, and large curling horns.

 

Harvey furiously kicks himself backwards, away from physical manifestation of the terror that haunts his daily life. He falls hard off his bed and his shoulders hit the wall hard. He is shaking apart at the seams and he is screaming, please anyone help, and he is being shaken but he clenches his eyes shut in hopes that will make it go away. Whatever was shaking him stops and he curls into himself, hoping that if he makes himself small it will go away. He’s shaking and weeping and, after a while of silence, he peeks his eyes open.

 

He sees Tommy sitting on his own bed across the room facing him with a school book on his lap. He begins to cry once again, but this time out of gratitude. Tommy’s eyes shoot up and once he sees Harvey with his eyes open, he strides quickly over to his side. Tommy tells him it is alright, that what he keeps seeing is just his mind playing tricks on him. Harvey wishes he could believe him.

 

—

 

He begins to draw more and more after. He transitions from the stubby crayons of grade school to rough pencil sketches he draws at his desk. He doesn’t go out with Tommy and his friends anymore. Tommy tells him quietly one day when Harvey once again turns down his offer of going out that the other boys don’t judge him for being so affected by his time in the mines. Harvey still insists. Even if they don’t find his breakdown embarrassing, he is embarrassed enough for all of them. Ashamed of the way he acted, especially in front of the older boys.

 

He was not especially aware of the others watching him when Tommy led him out and towards home, but when he thinks back he can remember their wide eyes and stoic faces. Tommy said they were all thankful that they found him okay, even if a little shaken up. Sometimes Harvey thinks they were just greatful they couldn’t be pegged as responsible for losing some kid that insistently tagged along.

 

 

His father mournfully denounces his new hobby one day when he is standing in the doorway of his and Tommy’s room. Because of course, drawing would get him nowhere in life, especially when his was already on a direct path back into the mines.

 

His dad leaves soon after that but he left his mark. His hands shake as he desperately sketches the creature that haunts his life. Tommy searches the drawings scattered across his desk for one to complement, but they are all of the same thing. He shakes his head and pats Harvey on the back.

 

The next afternoon Harvey finds a pile of drawing supplies on his desk.

 

—

 

When Harvey sits down for dinner with Tommy and his father one night, he has dread churning within his stomach. Which isn’t saying too much, nights like these, where his dad has started drinking earlier than usual, often end with tense words and, later, tears when he presses his face down hard into the pillow that night.

 

Tonight his father is once again lamenting the path his youngest son is taking in life. Rejecting sports- which without how would he build character, learn the meaning of teamwork and hardship- staying inside by himself- clean air and sunshine is a natural immune builder, loners are the destroyers of community and a waste to society as a whole- and, god forbid, drawing- what a waste, he spent a few hours in a mine and now he’s a coward? What is he going to do in a few years when he’s spending hours working down in the mines?

 

Harvey grips the armrests of his wooden chair and he grits his teeth. His father is still talking, but he can’t seem to make out a word he is saying. Before he can continue, his father chokes on the food he is eating. He chokes and chokes until Harvey’s anger transitions to worry and his father is alright again.

 

This only makes his father scowl, grasp the bottle of liquor sitting on the counter behind him, and take a large swig. It is not long before they all finish eating and Harvey and Tommy busy themselves with the dishes.

 

—

 

Harvey turns a corner at school and sees Billy Marlin and his friends shoving Susie around. All in all, not a surprising sight. Lately, it’s been getting worse and worse and sometimes it makes him feel so helpless he could hurt someone.

 

He’s already shouting at them to stop, but he is so far away. By the time he makes it to Susie they will already be gone. He scrunches his eyebrows and huffs air out his nose, and he feels so angry at them and how they make him and his friends feel.

 

And then Billy trips and clips his head off a table and there’s blood pooling everywhere. Harvey jumps back and there’s commotion breaking out in the hallway and his hands are shaking. Someone’s calling for an ambulance and with only one class left in the day they are all allowed to go home.

 

—

 

His grandfather comes to visit and Harvey is dragged along on the hunting trip. Tommy tries to convince him it won’t be too bad, but Harvey knows that’s too good to be true. Sticking his grandfather, father, Tommy, and him into the woods and give them all guns and something’s bound to go wrong.

 

But then he hears look, shoot, and he does and it hits with sickening accuracy. His father nods with affirmation and says that he knew there was Kinkle blood somewhere within him. Tommy laughs and pats him on the back. He looks towards his grandfather, expecting perhaps some lukewarm reaction, but all he receives is a leer.

 

His grandfather had never been that fond of Harvey, but then again he had never been too fond of anything really other than alcohol and baseball. A true American.

 

Later, when he’s told that the Kinkle family used to be witch hunters it feels as though his body is at war with itself. Each lung tearing the other apart to spite it of air, the large intestine strangling the small to spare it of sustenance, the liver and the gallbladder chase each other around his torso as his heart beats out its last thundering cadence.

 

At first he believes it to be guilt, for his family and the horrible sins it has committed, but it is too strong to be that.

 

He gasps and nods and keeps moving. Why should this surprise him? His family has never been a spot of pride, other than Tommy the one bright splotch staining the otherwise night-black canvas of his family tree.

 

Besides, he actually takes comfort in knowing that there might be a biological reason for the fury that overcomes him at times, the violence that makes up his life. Perhaps he was made to be this way.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Note that I came up with this idea before the second season came out which is also why it starts in the first season. It diverges from the show, obviously, but I do plan to continue it into the second season as well.


End file.
